


Hero

by erikahk



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-31 00:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1024941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erikahk/pseuds/erikahk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes people think it's easy being a hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero

Sometimes people think it’s easy being a hero. He smiles and smirks and is all smug about it, making it look like it’s just another day saving the universe and that it is so damn easy, but it really isn’t sometimes. 

There are those times when she watches him sauntering away, a genuine smile on his lips as he walks back showing off to her and everyone else around. And she loves him for being such a dork because saving a whole planet wearing a pair of really horrible looking glasses and the weirdest hat she has ever seem must really be the best way to make her just want to rip those things off him and drag him to the bedroom. 

But there are those other times when the smile doesn’t reach his eyes and he walks away like he is afraid to even glance backwards. As they enter the TARDIS she can feel a shiver running down her spine. She figures it must be the TARDIS reacting to his presence or maybe it’s just the image of him supporting both hands on the console, looking down and shoulders hunched, avoiding her gaze. 

River doesn’t need to look into his face to know exactly what it looks like. She knows that she’ll see the oldest pair of eyes looking back at her, glistering with tears he is trying to suppress. He wants to be strong, but she knows that his hearts are too broken for that. But it doesn’t mean he is weak. That’s what makes him so amazing. He knows the stakes. He is aware of just how much he will be giving up when he makes that decision, not only the lives that will be saved, but also the countless ones that will be lost and the size of the hole that will leave in his soul. He needs to cling onto something; that little bit of good it did, but after so long it is so hard.

And that’s why she’s there. She reaches in and makes him turn around. He looks at her and she looks back with no reservations, no judgment, just a genuine smile of affection as she caresses his face and pulls away the hair from his eyes. He doesn’t say anything and he really doesn’t have to. She can read him like a book; all the thoughts crossing through his mind also crossing hers. The only thing she can do to help is to be there for him and that’s what she does. She hugs him, soothing him when she feels just how tight he is hugging back, his face buried in her shoulder as the tears he was holding back start to flow away freely.

And she loves him even more in those moments


End file.
